Elizabeth Kim
{{Short description|Korean American journalist}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{use American English|date=October 2020}}
Elizabeth Kim is the pen name of an American journalist who authored the book Ten Thousand Sorrows, which is described as a memoir.
Early life
Kim was born in South Korea to a Korean mother and an American father. She was conceived most likely after the Korean Armistice Agreement, which ended the fighting in the Korean War.{{citation |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/63630919.html?dids=63630919:63630919&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+12%2C+2000&author=Hillel+Italie%2C+Associated+Press&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=FACT+OR+FICTION%3F+THE+DOWNFALL+OF+SOME+MEMOIRS+ARE+THE+FLAWS+IN+THE+MEMORIES&pqatl=google |periodical=Chicago Tribune |last=Italie |first=Hillel |title=Fact or fiction? The downfall of some memoirs are the flaws in the memories |date=2000-11-12 |accessdate=2011-09-29 |archive-date=September 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913122808/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/doc/419354041.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Nov%2012%2C%202000&author=Hillel%20Italie%2C%20Associated%20Press&pub=Chicago%20Tribune&edition=&startpage=&desc=FACT%20OR%20FICTION%3F%20THE%20DOWNFALL%20OF%20SOME%20MEMOIRS%20ARE%20THE%20FLAWS%20IN%20THE%20MEMORIES |url-status=dead }} According to Kim's memories, her father abandoned her mother, who was forced to return to her hometown alone and pregnant to seek assistance from her family. After Kim's birth, she lived with her mother in a hut at the edge of town, and worked in the rice fields. When Kim was a child, as she remembers it, her mother was killed by her grandfather and uncle in what she would later describe as an "honor killing".{{citation |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110130084946/http://www.salon.com/books/review/2000/05/17/kim |url=http://www.salon.com/books/review/2000/05/17/kim |archivedate=January 30, 2011 |work=Salon |last=Frase |first=Brigitte |date=2000-05-17 |title='Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan' by Elizabeth Kim: An immigrant's brutal and disturbing memoir of abuse at the hands of fundamentalist parents and a sadistic husband |url-status=dead |accessdate=2011-09-28}}{{citation |last=Lee |first=Margaret Juhae |url=http://www.thenation.com/archive/koreas-fallout |periodical=The Nation |title=Korea's Fallout |date=2000-12-25 |oclc=203159788 |accessdate=2011-09-26}} Kim herself was left at a Seoul orphanage, with no record of her original name or her family.{{citation|url=http://www.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/2000/6/12/kim/|publisher=CNN|date=2000-06-12 |title=Author Elizabeth Kim on being a Korean War Orphan |accessdate=2011-09-29}} Eventually, she was adopted by a minister and his wife and given the name Elizabeth.
''Ten Thousand Sorrows''
=Writing and reactions=
Kim was working as a journalist at the Marin Independent Journal and living in San Rafael, California, when literary agent Patti Breitman approached her about the possibility of writing a memoir. Kim was initially reluctant, but Breitman slowly convinced her of the idea; Breitman herself says that publishers were quite enthusiastic about the idea, and one even replied to her proposal within a day, simply asking her to "name a price". In the end, Kim received an advance of hundreds of thousands of dollars for her book; when it was published in May 2000, Kim quit her job at the Marin Independent Journal (despite her recent promotion to city editor) to tour in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.{{citation |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Escaping-Her-Past-San-Rafael-author-Elizabeth-3238244.php |periodical=San Francisco Chronicle |first=Rona |last=Marech |date=2000-10-06 |title=Escaping Her Past: San Rafael author Elizabeth Kim, a Korean War orphan raised by fundamentalist parents in California, tells of her painful upbringing in a haunting memoir |access-date=2011-09-29}}
Andrea Behr, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, praised Kim's writing, comparing her book to Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, and stating that "she has the gift of telling her story with such clear-sighted, humble honesty, and such compassion, that it's just as fascinating and compulsively readable as it is devastating".{{citation |url=https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/A-Korean-War-Orphan-Lives-to-Tell-Her-Story-A-2782102.php |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708144048/http://articles.sfgate.com/2000-05-07/books/17648979_1_crib-orphan-rice-fields |url-status=live |archive-date=July 8, 2012 |date=2000-05-07 |periodical=San Francisco Chronicle |title=A Korean War Orphan Lives to Tell Her Story: A young girl survives a hellish situation in her native land, only to face more horrors in America |first=Andrea |last=Behr |access-date=2011-09-29}} It was also reviewed favorably in O, Oprah Winfrey's magazine.{{citation needed|date=July 2010}} Others were less positive. Salon reviewer Brigitte Frase described Kim's book as "brutal", "haunting and disturbing", and "an act of revenge", ending her review by stating that "I have read it so that you won't have to".
Some critics suspected Kim's book of being fictional rather than autobiographical, with Hillel Italie of Associated Press expressing concern that Kim's vagueness regarding dates and locations prevented the book's facts from being verifiable.{{citation |url=https://apnews.com/article/b561932edf027b7fba6fe147eeba4af6 |date=2000-10-27 |periodical=Associated Press |title=Book Criticized for Factual Errors|first=Hillel |last=Italie |accessdate=2022-11-14}} It was particularly controversial in the Korean American community, some of whose members accused Kim of "exploiting the issue of biraciality" and "trying to take advantage of the [then] current interest in autobiographies, particularly those that involved violence against women".{{citation |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=noq1ooOwl8gC&pg=PA197 197] |title=Begin here: reading Asian North American autobiographies of childhood |first=Rocío G. |last=Davis |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8248-3092-2}} Others objected to the description of her mother's murder as an "honor killing" as being inconsistent with Korean culture. However, Korean American writer Kim Sun-jung defended the book, criticizing B. R. Myers, who lambasted what he described as the book's "ludicrous inaccuracies" about Korean culture, because Myers himself was not Korean.{{citation |url=http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2574551 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717064446/http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2574551 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=July 17, 2012 |periodical=JoongAng Ilbo |date=2005-05-29 |title=The Remarkable B.R. Myers Revealed |last=Kim |first=Sun-jung |accessdate=2011-09-29}}
= Reviews =
- Koji Nnamdi, WAMU{{citation |author=Koji Nnamdi |title=Elizabeth Kim: "Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan" |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=WAMU |year=2000 |oclc=426221805}}
- Seiwoong Oh, Western American Literature{{citation |author=Seiwoong Oh |title=Book Reviews — Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan |journal=Western American Literature |volume=36 |issue=2 |year=2001 |issn=0043-3462 |oclc=94147883}}
- Susan Soon-Keum Cox, Adoption Quarterly{{citation |author=Susan Soon-Keum Cox |title=Ten Thousand Sorrows, by Elizabeth Kim |journal=Adoption Quarterly |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=87–93 |year=2001 |issn=1092-6755 |oclc=207266672 |doi=10.1300/J145v04n03_06|s2cid=218645475 }}
- Tracy Dianne Wood, Ph.D. dissertation, U.C. Riverside{{citation |author=Tracy Dianne Wood |chapter=Chapter 2 |title=Korean American literature: literary orphans and the legacy of Han |series=Ph.D. dissertation |publisher=University of California, Riverside |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-549-52376-5 |oclc=744022321}}
=Editions and translations=
Ten Thousand Sorrows was published in the following editions:
- {{citation |author=Elizabeth Kim |title=Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-385-49633-9 |oclc=42753514 |url=https://archive.org/details/tenthousandsorr000kime}}
- Audiobook (read by the author): {{citation |author=Elizabeth Kim |title=Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan |location=New York |publisher=BDD Audio |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-553-50258-9 |oclc=44062484}}
- United Kingdom edition: {{citation |author=Elizabeth Kim |title=Ten Thousand Sorrows: The Extraordinary Journey of a Korean War Orphan |location=London |publisher=Bantam Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-553-81264-0 |oclc=51964925}}
It was translated into eleven languages. The below list gives unofficial translations of the foreign-language titles where the original title was not preserved.
- Chinese: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=張娟芬 [Chang Chuan-fen, translator] |script-title=zh:昨日不可留 |trans-title=Yesterday cannot remain |location=Taipei |publisher=大塊文化出版股份有限公司 [Locos Publishing Company] |year=2000 |isbn=978-957-0316-55-1 |oclc=50140103}}
- Dutch: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Marcella Houweling (translator) |title=Tienduizend tranen |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Luitingh-Sijthoff |year=2000 |isbn=978-90-245-3751-8 |oclc=67359679}}
- Danish: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Lene Schiøt (translator) |title=Ti tusind sorger |location=København [Copenhagen] |publisher=Egmont Wangel |year=2001 |isbn=978-87-608-1027-5 |oclc=462993529}}
- Finnish: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Riikka Toivanen |title=Kymmenentuhatta surua: korealaisen tytön tarina |location=Helsinki |publisher=WSOY |year=2001 |isbn=978-951-0-25236-9 |oclc=58315443}}
- German: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Maria Mill (translator) |title=Weniger als nichts: ein Frauenschicksal zwischen Osten und Westen [Less than nothing: a woman's destiny between East and West] |publisher=RM Buch-und-Medien-Vertriebs-GmbH |year=2001 |oclc=759469198}}
- Hungarian: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Nagy Imre |title=Tízezer könnycsepp: egy távol-keleti nő emlékiratai |location=Budapest |publisher=Trivium |year=2001 |isbn=978-963-7570-88-9 |oclc=440110110 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9789637570889}}
- Korean: {{citation |author1=엘리자베스김 [Elizabeth Kim] |author2=노진선 [Roh Jin-sun, translator] |script-title=ko:만가지슬픔 |language=ko |trans-title=All kinds of sadness |publisher=대산출판사 [Taesan Chulpansa] |year=2001 |isbn=978-89-372-0867-6 |oclc=48149370}}
- Turkish: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Füsun Doruker (translator) |title=On bin keder |location=İstanbul |publisher=Altın Kitaplar |year=2001 |isbn=978-975-21-0160-9 |oclc=222983258}}
- Italian: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Daniela Prasse |title=Diecimila dolori |location=Milano |publisher=Longanesi & Co. |year=2002 |isbn=978-88-304-1769-4 |oclc=226228201}}
- Japanese: {{citation |author1=エリザベス・キム著 [Elizabeth Kim] |author2=雨宮絵理 [Amamiya Eri, translator] |script-title=ja:一万の悲しみ |language=ja |publisher=DHC |year=2002 |isbn=978-4-88724-279-1 |oclc=50685924}}
- Polish: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Danuta Górska (translator) |title=Mniej niż nic |language=pl |trans-title=Less than nothing |location=Warszawa |publisher=Świat Ksiażk |year=2002 |isbn=978-83-7311-320-6 |oclc=62764089}}
Further editions were published in two of those languages:
- German paperback: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Maria Mill (translator) |title=Ungeliebtes Kind: eine koreanische Kriegswaise kämpft um ihr Leben |trans-title=Unloved Child: A Korean War orphan struggles for her life |location=München |publisher=Goldmann |year=2004 |isbn=978-3-442-15232-2 |oclc=76488912}}
- Hungarian paperback: {{citation |author1=Elizabeth Kim |author2=Nagy Imre |title=Tízezer könnycsepp: egy távol-keleti nő emlékiratai |location=Budapest |publisher=Trivium |year=2006 |isbn=978-963-9367-91-3 |oclc=441102719}}
References
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Elizabeth}}
Category:South Korean emigrants to the United States
Category:American writers of Korean descent
Category:American women journalists
Category:South Korean adoptees